David Jaffe

David Jaffe is Associate Dean for Student Affairs at American University Washington College of Law.

In his work on wellness issues among law students over the last two decades, he has served on the D.C. Bar Lawyer Assistance Program including as its chair and continues to serve on the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP) as co-chair of the Law School Assistance Committee. Jaffe co-authored “Suffering in Silence: The Survey of Law Student Well-Being and the Reluctance of Law Students to Seek Help for Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns”, reporting the results of the national survey he co-piloted in 2014, and was lead author for the Updated Survey, published as “It Is Okay to Not Be Okay”. He was lead author for the Law School section of “The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change” released in August 2017.  Jaffe also authored “The Key to Law Student Well-Being? We Have to Love Our Law Students” in the NALP PD (National Association of Law Placement Professional Development) Quarterly, and co-authored “Conduct Yourselves Accordingly: Amending Bar Character and Fitness Questions to Promote Lawyer Well-Being” in The Professional Lawyer magazine of the American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility. This latter article focus on the importance of stats removing their mental health questions from the character and fitness portion of the bar exam application.

David says he practices mindfulness by being in the moment with his daughters whenever he can.